


Briar Rose

by AntaresPromise



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Fairy Tale Retellings, Happy Ending, Illustrated, M/M, Romance, Space AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-01
Updated: 2018-05-01
Packaged: 2019-04-30 11:15:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14495745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AntaresPromise/pseuds/AntaresPromise
Summary: Through the thorns, a hero finds his prince at the edge of the galaxy.





	Briar Rose

**Author's Note:**

> Art by [Littorella](https://littorella.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Story by [Antares](https://antarespromise.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Created for [Live and Love YOI Bing #3 ](https://liveloveyoibang.tumblr.com/)

******5069 A. D.**

Yuuri stole a glance through the curved windows spanning from the ground to ceiling overlooking the crystalline lake. The binary star sustaining life on this little planet hung low over the horizon painting the sky shades of violet and orange.

He raised his hands to the grand piano. Beethoven’s _Moonlight Sonata,_ he knew by heart.

The aroma of coffee, bittersweet and comforting filled him with warmth. _This is home,_ he closed his eyes. _There’s nowhere else I’d rather be, maybe except for being close to him. Stop it, Yuuri,_ he kicked himself inside. _You’ve have never even met him. And he’s gone now._

Soft, undulating, melody of the timeless piece escaped his fingers. After long days of work troubleshooting in the creases and crevasses of spaceships that braved the unforgiving abyss, Phichit invited Yuuri to play whenever he liked.

19:57, he caught a glimpse of his watch. _Three more minutes._

Not many ventured this far into the universe.

‘Hello’, ‘beautiful morning’, and ‘goodbye’ - those were the most commonly used four words by the travelers. Sometimes they added the fifth and sixth, to Phichit’s delight, ‘fabulous coffee’.

The cappuccino machine buzzed as the same small crowd gathered around the semicircular counter. Unlike everywhere else in the galaxy, where robots brewed coffee with stunning precision, down to the water temperature, Phichit still ground the beans by hand. That made him feel alive, as he would often remind Yuuri.

Phichit’s eyes lit up as he pulled the fabric cover off a wooden box with knobs on the side. He loved collecting ancient relics from the earth. A radio, Yuuri taught him its name. Phichit bribed Yuuri with his finest coffee beans from the other side of the galaxy to repair the radio.

Despite Yuuri’s humbleness and self-doubt, Phichit knew the full extent of his best friend’s capability.

Yuuri Katsuki could fix anything.

19:59. Yuuri’s hands landed on a cadence. _It’s time._ He stood up, sidestepping the humming electric blue spherical robot that mopped the floor on its own. Phichit loved creating and serving drinks by hand and hated cleaning up, which he deferred to AI, like everywhere else in the galaxy.

A crisp note from the windchime announced the entrance of a blonde teenager in a faux leather coat over a faded tiger sweater.

“Hey, Yuri!” Yuuri grinned and waved.

“Hey yourself,” Yuri’s golden mane hid part of his face, “pig.” He muttered under his breath.

Despite the attitude and the permanent look as if something nasty lived under his nose, Yuri Plisetsky was brilliant.

Along with his grandfather, he maintained the infrastructure keeping the habitable portion of this planet separate from the rest. The rest meaning the galaxy’s junkyard, where automated machines compressed heaps of broken spaceships, scraps of metal into cubes to be disposed of. Yuri made sure that the water supply from the lake stayed pristine, and the air pure. He perched on a barstool next to the radio, “give me coffee.”

Phichit grew used to the feisty prodigy, he reached into the stack of wide mugs painted in various shades of turquoise and aquamarine, “busy day?”

Yuri shrugged as he threw his hoodie over his head.

Without knowing when this became a routine, every day at 20:00 more and more regulars gathered around the radio, waiting for that voice to tell stories.

“Who do you think he is?” Mila rested on her chin on her palm, tucking a strand of brilliant red hair behind her ear.

“Maybe someone famous?” Sara twirled her dark brown lock with her finger, “I swear he sounds familiar.”

“That’s dumb, why would anyone famous bother coming near a place like this,” Yuri snorted. His back straightened as the door of the cafe slid open again revealing a tall, dark-haired figure with a stoic expression. Yuri pulled off his hoodie and clawed at his golden mane, taming it with part clumsiness and part desperation while avoiding Mila’s inquisitive gaze.

Mila giggled as Otabek joined them.

Perhaps the finest pilot in the galaxy, Otabek Altin enjoyed his life on this forgettable little planet. Because of his skills, recruiters from SpaceCorps hounded him. They tried hiring him to fly through the most perilous parts of the universe in search of other habitable worlds. They couldn’t outrun him in the end.

20:00, the air grew thick with anticipation as the soft chatter halted.

“Makka, what story do you want to hear today?” the mysterious voice began amidst the static, pleasant and calm.

Two staccato barks followed.

“About the earth again? Of course, I know you’d like that.”

“There he is!” Phichit exclaimed as he patted the precious radio. He couldn't keep the grin off his face because more than anything, he loved the earth.

Yuuri shuddered in silent laughter as he watched his best friend.

“Isn’t it crazy once upon a time, every human being lived on that pale blue dot, the 3rd planet from the Sun? Imagine this, everyone you know, everyone you loved, everyone you have ever heard of on a single world.”

The crowd stirred.

“We’d like to think that we are important, that we are intelligent enough to venture and settle into the further corners of the galaxy. But in the grand scheme of things, our lives are brief, like shooting stars, or merely drops of water in the ocean.”

“What’s an ocean?” Yuri narrowed his emerald eyes casting a sideways glance.

“A larger body of water that covered most of the earth, much bigger than our lake,” Yuuri answered, he shut his eyes and replayed the hologram clips of waves crashing onto a golden shore in his mind. He imagined putting his hand into the cool foamy surface and running his fingers through the silky sand.

“Shh -” Someone whispered.

“Sorry,” Yuuri blushed.

“First we went to the moon, in those clunky ships and big spacesuits. Two hundred years later the first colony began on Mars, of course, the details needed to be ironed out. How to grow sustainable crops and construct shelter. We figured everything out in the end.” the mysterious voice carried on.

 _Dr. Nikiforov loved the earth._ A gnawing sensation at the pit of Yuuri’s stomach that he long suppressed returned. _I worked so hard, beat the odds, every exam, and practicum to be selected to be his apprentice. But before we ever met_ , _he vanished._ Yuuri didn’t only want to only fix ships, he dreamt of building them to be able to sustain entire cities.

 _That was four years ago,_ he swallowed hard. SpaceCorps sent agents and search warrants across the galaxy. Dr. Nikiforov’s portrait buzzed in the holographic projection of the news with the scrolling subtitle, ‘Dead or Alive?’ ‘Was This Man Too Smart for His Own good?’ ‘the Fall of a Rising Star’.

Yuuri’s shoulder slumped as a twinge of sadness pierced through him, like the scar that wouldn’t stop throbbing. _Let it go._ Dr. Nikiforov’s disappearance hit Yuri even harder, because only two apprentices were chosen. Yuuri secured the first spot, through endless effort and sheer determination, and Yuri through intuition and razor-sharp focus.

“On certain places of the earth, there were four seasons,” nobody could miss the fondness in the voice from the radio, “spring after the snow melts would be my favorite.”

 _Snow,_ Yuuri imagined one million flakes drifting around him, falling onto his coat and breaking into individual crystals, each unique from the rest. None of them had ever seen snow before. _I would love spring too._

“Back on earth, when snow falls they sprinkled salt to keep the roads from staying icy and slippery. Isn’t that wild, Makka? Cars never left the ground like our gliders do. They traveled on roads in between skyscrapers in cities, which are made of columns of concrete with windows along the side.”

Static followed by a bark.

“I’m sorry I never had a chance to take you to see those skyscrapers.”

Yuuri gripped the corner of the sleeves of his coat. His heart raced. _I’m not sure if anyone else noticed. He sounds like he’s been alone for years._

Yuuri stood up and left.

* * *

 

“Vicchan, it’s not fair,” Yuuri grumbled as the small brown haired poodle’s eyes widened while tilting his head, “you know I can’t say no to you when you give me that look, “fine, I know I’ll regret this later, but you can come with me.” _You and I have one thing in common,_ Yuuri amused himself for a second thinking about that voice, _having extensive conversations with our dogs._

Vicchan wagged his tail, his mechanical front paw tapped the ground as he followed his best friend.

Yuuri found Vicchan trapped in the junkyard with a broken leg, he crafted a new one, “come, before it gets dark, I need to find several parts.” _How could they have cars that don’t fly on earth?_ Yuuri shook his head, _that must’ve been terribly inconvenient._

He ignited the engine of the lithe glider he built by assembling parts from several old ships together. The propellers accelerated as wingbeat of a dragonfly overhead. _Half an hour before nightfall._

Yuuri grew used to the clanking of the automated machinery in the background. He extinguished the dashboard light after landing his makeshift glider onto the belly of a retired ship from decades ago with the faded SpaceCorps logo painted on the side. Vicchan trotted behind him, mechanical paw clicking against metal.

Yuuri entered the abandoned spaceship through a broken window. The blue glow from his watch lit their way. _This is the right model for the parts I need,_ Yuuri pulled his favorite tool tucked in his utility belt resembling a pen.

Vicchan knew to retreat, as Yuuri held it as a wand and drew an orange circle around the rusty dashboard. The air sizzled as the metal gave way.

The poodle leaped by his side to help illuminate the circuit board with the azure light from his collar.

“Thanks,” Yuuri scratched Vicchan under the chin, “maybe I’m not regretting bringing you along after all.” He fumbled through the wires, ran the circuit through his head and grinned.

_Perfect._

* * *

Yuuri mounted the coils of wires collected from his trip and connected the mouthpiece to the power source. He stretched his arms, as fatigue from a long day of work caught up to him. Vicchan curled up fast asleep at his feet. Tossing his head back, Celaeno, one of seven moons revolving around this planet, greeted him through the skylight as a pale blue shadow. The earth had one moon, this planet had seven.

His heart pounded against his chest as he put on headphones. He held his breath as he turned the knob. Behind the bench, he never took down the faded poster of Dr. Nikiforov, grinning as he accepted one of the most prestigious engineering awards. His silver hair flowed past his shoulders, his smile carefree.

Static.

“Hello?” Yuuri spoke, as Vicchan stirred.

Barking from the other side answered, “Makka? What’s going on?”

 _Success!_ Yuuri’s eyes lit up, “Can you hear me?”

“Yes,” the voice sounded surprised as if he hadn’t spoken to another human being for years.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to disturb you,” Yuuri added, his heart now at his throat.

“It’s alright, you don’t have to apologize, I thought I was far removed from civilization.” The second of signal delay seemed like an eternity.

Yuuri chuckled, “you are partly right, there’s not that many of us around here. Most visitors tune up their ships and leave. It’s considered the middle of nowhere.”

“I see.”

Silence.

“My name is Yuuri,” he introduced himself. _Of course, if I didn’t speak to another person for years, I wouldn’t know what to say._

“I’m -” the stranger hesitated.

“It’s alright, you don’t have to tell me,” Yuuri reassured him, giving him space.

“What do you do?”

“I am a ship mechanic, we have enough travelers to keep busy.” Yuuri rested his chin on the back of his palms.

“Do you like it?”

“Sure,” Vicchan woke up, Yuuri picked him up, “though I have always wanted to help build bigger ships. I guess things aren’t always possible this far out. But I like it here, even though half of this planet is the galaxy’s junkyard, it’s home for me.” _Four years ago I could have gone to study with Dr. Nikiforov,_ Yuuri shut his eyes and forced those thoughts away.

Vicchan barked into the receiver from Yuuri’s lap, his tail wagging.

The sound of something dropping on the other side followed by a high pitched screech.

“I’m so sorry if he hurt your ears, that’s Vicchan,” Yuuri bit his lip.

For the first time, Yuuri heard the stranger laugh, “that took me by surprise. My dog is here with me too.”

“What’s her name?”

“Makkachin.”

Yuuri froze. _Makkachin_ , _that’s the name of Dr. Nikiforov’s dog._ _It can’t be._ “What does that mean?”

“I wish I can make up some profound story, but I don’t know, she looked like a Makkachin, and I like the sound of it.”

“Fair enough,” Yuuri grinned. After a long pause, “are you alone out there?” Part of him feared the strange yet familiar voice would disappear if he pried or asked the wrong question.

“Yes, just Makkachin and me,” the voice soft, hiding an indescribable amount of sadness.

“How long has it been?” Yuuri interlaced his fingers together.

“Four years, I think, it’s better this way. The planet I am on I mean, there’s the black sand beach, the ocean, flying fish, and enough food in the forest to keep me from going hungry.”

“That’s a long time,” Yuuri replied, “ We have a lake here, that’s pretty much it. My friend is a sixteen-year-old prodigy with an attitude, he keeps it clean and separate from everything else.”

“He sounds brilliant,” from that voice, a hint of a smile.

“He is, I want to take him to see an ocean one of these days.” Yuuri smiled. _Maybe then he won’t glare at me and call me pig under his breath anymore,_ “his name is also Yuri, I think he’s permanently angry at me for having the same name.”

The stranger chuckled. Yuuri spoke more than he did, about his sleepy little planet in the middle of nowhere, about Phichit’s old-style cafe, and about Yuri’s quirks, and the few times Otabek told jokes and nobody knew whether to laugh or not.

He lost track of time.

“The stars from here are amazing, I can watch them forever, away from cities, from people,” the voice began.

“I know what you mean,” Yuuri laid on the ground beneath his skylight, “there’s nothing like the starry night at home. I opened a chunk of my ceiling and installed a skylight. When I was a kid, I made up my own constellations and their stories. They are happier than the ancient myths of the earth, I must confess.”

After a long silence, the stranger laughed into the static, “I did that too. Sometimes mythology can be morbid.”

“Right?” Yuuri’s voice amused, “like being sacrificed to sea monsters.”

“Or a lecher chasing seven women across the sky and never catching up in his pursuit,” the voice continued.

“I know that one, the story of Orion and the Pleiades,” Yuuri tried to hide the excitement in his voice. “I find it crazy the star I am looking at night might not even be there this moment because its light can take thousands of years to reach where I am,” Yuuri squinted his eyes, the brightest stars glowed against the velvet infinity.

“Makes us feel infinitesimally small, doesn’t it?”

Yuuri didn’t say anything for some time, mesmerized by the night sky. _I want to watch the stars with you._

He realized how much time passed, he had four hours of sleep before work. He didn’t want this night to end, “can I talk to you again sometimes?”

“Of course, Yuuri.” For the first time, the stranger said his name, “by the way, my name is Victor.”

Yuuri held his breath, _I knew it. Makkachin, four years of isolation, love for the earth, everything makes sense._ One million different emotions flooded inside him, he covered eyes with the back of his hand. _Dr. Nikiforov, I can’t believe I found you._ He wanted, more than anything, to tell Victor that he was everything he ever aspired to be. Victor was his hero, his guide, like a lighthouse to a lost ship in the ocean.

 _At the right time, in the right way._ He had hundreds of things to say, but instead, he whispered over the static, “good night Victor.”

“Good night, Yuuri.”

* * *

 

“You met someone, didn’t you,” Yuuko cast a sly sideways glance from the ladder, while she coughed and sputtered in the engine room.

“No comment,” Yuuri couldn’t wipe his grin off his face. _Stop smiling, you idiot._

“I can’t believe how filthy this place is,” Yuuko’s eyes widened with exasperation, “it’s only the most important room on the entire ship.”

“I can,” Yuuri’s flashlight on his head illuminated a band of floating dust. He enjoyed working with Yuuko the most, she taught him more about repairing ships than anyone else.

“Don’t try to change the topic,” Yuuko’s flashlight now on his face as police cornering a criminal.

Yuuri squinted and chuckled at his childhood friend, “you have dirt on your nose.” Bright spots danced before his vision.

Instead of being self-conscious, with three fingers covered in grease, she smeared it across his face and burst into a fit of giggles.

“Real mature,” Yuuri sighed and wiped his nose, making the streak even more apparent.

She elbowed him, still shaking from silent laughter, “get back to work, Katsuki, don’t you dare think I am finished with you.”

* * *

 

“Sorry Phichit, I’m sure you’ll forgive me later,” Yuuri smirked amidst the tangles of wires of his precious receiver, his connection to Victor Nikiforov.

 _Radio wave traveled, Victor could be anywhere._ He reminded himself. _Don’t get too excited._

He fed recordings of himself playing the piano to the frequency of Phichit’s radio. _I’ll put together a good list for you,_ Chopin’s _Nocturne_ , Liszt’s _La Campanella_ \- a piece he spent forever practicing and wishing he had bigger hands. _I know, Phichit, I am being selfish._

“Victor, are you there?” above his desk, a faded poster of Dr. Nikiforov accepting the most prestigious award in the engineering world. In golden letters across the poster, the words “Architect to the Stars”. Aside from that title some once dubbed Victor as the “most eligible bachelor of the galaxy.” Yuuri remembered Victor making fun of both titles at an interview. Dr. Nikiforov had always been humble and kind to his fans.

“Hi Yuuri, I am,” the gentle voice answered.

Victor wanted to know everything, about Yuuri’s planet, about Phichit’s cafe, about Yuri and his grandfather.

It became a routine, Yuuri coming back from work, he would play the piano like usual, perhaps for a few minutes less. Then he came home to Victor’s voice waiting for him.

On some nights, after the cafe closed, Yuuri left the transmitter on top of the grand piano and played for him. Some pieces timeless, some pieces modern, others pieces Yuuri conjured from his imagination that nobody had ever heard before.

Some he composed for Victor, but he would never tell him that.

Little by little, walls crumbled.

“What did you used to do?” Yuuri clutched the makeshift radio transmitter until his knuckles turned white, still fearing that Victor would retreat and hide.

The seconds of delay for their signals to travel through the abyss seemed like an eternity.

“Well,” the voice answered with a hint of longing and sadness, “I was an engineer, I built ships.”

“Amazing,” Yuuri pretended to be unaware of Victor’s identity, in case he wasn’t ready to reconcile with the past, “I wanted to do the same since I was a kid.”

“Why didn’t you?”

 _Well, funny that you asked,_ “I had an opportunity once, but it didn’t work out.” A humming sound began in the background, perhaps from a wave of particles from the binary star, perhaps from a distant supernova, “I am happy to be back home. There’s not much here, but it’s home.”

Victor sighed, “home, I don’t really know what that means. I traveled frequently back then. I once thought my lab at the University was home. Until one day, I - ” he paused as the background humming also halted.

“It’s alright, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to -” Yuuri comforted him amidst the deafening silence.

“I’ll tell you everything, I was, let’s just say, somewhat known in my field,” Victor continued, the pain in his voice seeping through.

 _Are you kidding me? That was a huge understatement._ Yuuri hugged his knees to his chest.

“And sometimes, that brought upon jealousy. Perhaps, all this came from one of the requests that I declined. I was asked to build a destroyer with the potential to wipe out a planet. One day I came back to find my lab in ruins. All of my work for the past decade turned into nothing overnight. I always wanted to build a civilian ship with the capacity to relocate entire cities for, and that was reduced into nothing but burnt chips and broken wires.”

“I’m so sorry,” Yuuri’s stomach twisted in knots.

“I have an inkling of who did it, but it doesn’t matter anymore. My assistant Christopher told me that my life was in danger, and he prepared this vessel, picked up Makkachin, with a route programmed for his home planet.”

Silence. Yuuri’s eyes stung. _I almost resented you, for disappearing on me, for vanishing on Yuri, he took it much harder than I did. I never knew you lived through all of this alone, after all this time._

“They chased me, good thing I used to race gliders as a hobby. But I knew this wouldn’t last forever, I would run out of fuel before I ever made it to the destination. Chris uploaded a map here of potentially habitable planets in this corner of the galaxy. I knew if I was wrong I wouldn’t survive, this ship can’t handle a crash landing then a launch. I took a gamble on this pale blue dot that resembled the earth. And here I am.”

Silence.

“I realized after some time of living by the ocean maybe I don’t want to go back after all. My parents passed away when I was young, Makkachin’s my only family. Being away from the entrepreneurs constantly persuading me to design ships for space tourism, and from SpaceCorps asking me to create a destroyer was liberating.” The static broke his voice, “My only regret is, I couldn’t tell my two apprentices who worked hard all of their lives, completed rigorous testing to be able to study with me the truth before I vanished. All I wanted was to tell them I’m sorry.”

Yuuri clutched his chest, his heart pounding beneath his fingertips. “Dr. Nikiforov, I never told you my full name. I’m sorry. My name is Yuuri Katsuki,” Yuuri began at last, “I forgive you. And Yuri Plisetsky will too.”

A gasp, “Yuuri, you know who I am? Since when?”

“Since the beginning,” Yuuri’s voice soft, “You are everything I have ever aspired to be. I looked up to you, I studied hard so I can be close to you. Receiving the acceptance message to your lab was one of the happiest days of my life, well, followed by one of the worst days of my life. I refused to believe that you are gone. I wanted to look for you, but didn’t the faintest idea of where and how.”

“I’m sorry.” A mysterious clicking started in the background, perhaps signal of the debris from a shooting star. They would never know.

Yuuri shut his eyes, “Knowing that you are alright, that’s more than enough for me.”

“Yuuri, please,” Victor pleaded, “tell me what I can do to make it up to you.”

“Nothing at all. Just be happy, Victor.” Yuuri laid on the ground underneath his skylight and watched the familiar constellations overhead, “live without any regrets.”

Victor didn’t answer.

After what seemed like an eternity, Yuuri begun, “Is there anything you miss?”

From Victor’s voice, a hint of a smile, “I guess dancing, do you know how to dance?”

Yuuri laughed, the tension from their prior conversation fading away as the sun rays after a storm, “I don’t think so.”

“Hey, Yuuri, what if I teach you how to dance, and anything else you wanted to know?”

“I’d like that,” twilight blurred before his eyes. _I’ll find you, Victor, I’ll never let you be alone again. I don’t care how long it takes._

* * *

 

“We need to talk,” Phichit crossed his arms, his eyes narrowed as the last customer left, “You are hiding something, spit it out.”

“Fine,” Yuuri bowed his head in defeat as he helped his best friend flip the sign on the glass door to “closed”, like an old-fashioned cafe on earth.

He told Phichit everything.

“I can’t believe you never told me that voice was Victor Nikiforov, your hero, the face on the poster in your room, and all these other posters under your bed. Yuuri, go find him get married already.”

Heat washed over Yuuri’s face, “he could be anywhere you know.”

“We’ll find him in no time, and I promise, on behalf of this little planet,” he puffed out his chest,” we’ll keep his secret safe.”

“You are welcome,” Yuri threw a piece of folded paper on top of the piano two days later before storming off.

Yuuri unraveled the page, then he wanted to run after Yuri and give him a bone-crushing hug. Then he took the idea back because Yuri would bite his head off.

Because written in the messy scrawl, were coordinates.

Victor’s coordinates.

 _He’s on Celaeno!_ Yuuri entered them into his watch, which corresponded to the smallest and bluest moon orbiting their planet. _Phichit you gossiping little piece of -_ Then warmth spread through the pit of his stomach. _Thank you, my friend._

A message appeared on the screen of his watch, “tomorrow 06:00 sharp. Beka’s flying, we are not waiting for you if you come late. - Yuri P.”

* * *

 

Though a man of few words, Otabek had been one of the most sensible, considerate person Yuuri ever met. He whisked Yuri away with the excuse to find ‘more schools of flying fish’ further out. He took Yuri to see the ocean for the first time. Yuuri had a funny feeling that Yuri would believe anything out of the stoic pilot’s mouth.

Yuuri’s watch showed him that he became closer and closer the coordinate Yuri scribbled in red. He held his breath as he walked along the black sand beach and into the forest.

The trees grew denser casting spots of light onto the ground. His footsteps silent atop a bed of soft moss.

Ancient trees with roots sprawling as wide as their crown decorated with vines, competing for light. The scent of the forest fresh and hypnotizing. Yuuri, mesmerized by the serenity, began to understand the reason Victor didn’t want to leave.

Before he reached the forest so dense, with only pinpoints of light penetrating to the ground studded with fern, a warm nose nuzzled his hand.

A much larger version of Vicchan greeted him, “Hi Makkachin, you are bigger than I imagined!” He kneeled and scratched her head. She wagged her tail as if he had known him all her life, “Will you show me where he is?”

Makkachin leaped on top of the pile of knotted roots, and Yuuri followed.

The path narrowed, Makkachin vanished all of a sudden.

Yuuri’s heart at his throat, he pushed through the curtain of vines, as snakes intertwining, guarding the forest’s best-kept secret.

His lips parted. The dull metal of a dilapidated ship appeared before his eyes. Four years later, the forest took the frontier of human creation into its arms. He couldn’t tell where the wires began and where the vines ended. He gripped the rough roots draped over the ship on its side with enough crisscrosses to find his footing. Without looking down, he climbed towards the light.

As he wiped the beads of perspiration from his forehead on top of the spaceship, he couldn’t help but grin and suppress silent laughter. He would have never imagined meeting his idol under these circumstances.

Victor sprawled fast asleep on top of the ship with the back of his hand over his eyes to dim the light that escaped the thicket. A real physical book on his stomach with the title ‘Cosmos’’. His face peaceful, as if in the middle of a good dream.

Yuuri stepped closer and watched Victor’s closed eyes dart beneath long silver lashes. _Am I being creepy?_ He raised an eyebrow as he tilted his head to read the author of Victor’s book: Carl Sagan. _I can’t believe he owned an actual copy. Did he, rob a museum?_

He decided to sit several feet away from Victor and not to wake him. _I waited all my life, what would several more minutes or even hours do?_ He glanced around the ship, serene as a sleeping giant embraced by nature.

He turned as Victor stirred. He tilted his chin up and caught a glimpse of the sky. _This must be where Victor watched the star._

“Yuuri?!”

For the first time, he heard Victor’s voice without the static.

Victor propped himself up, his footsteps reverberating against the metal hull, “I wasn’t expecting for you to find me this soon, how - “ He all of a sudden didn’t know how to react, to the first human being who stood before him in four years.

Yuuri grinned, “Yuri Plisetsky is a math genius.” He realized since the beginning when the small crowd gathered to listen to Victor, Yuri had been scribbling and recording data with his watch. A wave of gratitude washed over him.

Yuuri stepped closer.

He looked into a pair of azure eyes. His face lit up, the corners of his lips curled skyward. He stood up and stretched out his hand, “Victor Nikiforov, it’s nice to meet you.”

“Likewise,” Victor shook his hand, his hand warm and firm, his smile carefree, his hair the same shade as twilight.

Yuuri rehearsed in his head over and over what to say when he met Victor, but none of those mattered. He had hundreds even thousands of things to say, but at this moment, to be by Victor’s side was more than enough.

“Let’s go to the ocean,” Victor invited him, as a few silver locks fell before his eyes. He climbed down the tangle of wires and vines.

Yuuri followed.

* * *

 

Gentle waves crashed against the black sand shore. They spoke not as strangers meeting for the first time but like old friends filling in the gaps in each other’s absence.

Victor stepped closer, his smile mischievous, “Yuuri, let’s dance.”

“Alright,” Yuuri avoided his gaze, caught off guard, “I have no idea how I told you that.” He hesitated before curling his fingers around Victor’s left hand.

“I’ll show you,” Before his other hand rested on Yuuri’s waist Victor asked for permission, “May I?”

“Of course.” Yuuri didn’t ever want to let go.

Victor led him across the beach. Out of sync at first, Yuuri threw back his head with laughter from almost stepping on Victor’s feet more than once.

Then something clicked.

“I feel like a scene out of a silly fairy tale,” Yuuri caught on with the rhythm.

“I do too,” Victor squeezed his hand, reflected from his blue-green eyes, the endless ocean and the cerulean sky.

* * *

**Author's Note:**  
  
Art by [Littorella](https://littorella.tumblr.com/)

Story by [Antares](https://antarespromise.tumblr.com/)

Created for [Live and Love YOI Bing #3 ](https://liveloveyoibang.tumblr.com/)


End file.
